The official Twitter account for Ukraine sent out a call Thursday for the official Twitter account of Russia to be removed from the platform.
“hey people, let’s demand @Twitter to remove @Russia from here,” tweeted the official Ukrainian account.
“no place for an aggressor like Russia on Western social media platforms,” the tweet added. “they should not be allowed to use these platforms to promote their image while brutally killing the Ukrainian people @TwitterSupport.”
Ukraine’s public call for Russia’s removal from Twitter came after a wave of tweets regarding the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine early Thursday.
The Ukrainian account tweeted in the early hours of the morning: “#RussiaInvadedUkraine Today, on February 24 at 5AM, the armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine. #StayWithUkraine, stay tuned for updates on Ukraine’s official sources and channels in English and support Ukraine in its fight for freedom and democracy in Europe.”
The tweet also included the hashtags #StopRussianAggression and #UkraineUnderAttack.
Ukraine’s account encouraged users of social media sites to use their platforms to support Ukraine and fight against misinformation.
A page for the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center linked to in one of the Ukrainian account’s tweets said that “Russian troops in Ukraine are not ‘peacekeepers’, they are invaders.”
“The so-called ‘L/DPR’ in eastern Ukraine are not ‘self-declared republics; or ‘breakaway regions’, they are the Russian puppet republics,” the page added. “The occupying forces are not ‘Russia-backed separatists’ or ‘rebels’, they are Russian formed, led and financed proxy forces.”
“Russia has started the new wave of aggression against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian account wrote, urging Twitter users to side with Ukraine against the Russian government’s actions. “Wherever you are, whatever you do, you can help Ukraine now. You can help Ukraine against Russian aggression.”
The official Russian Twitter account has not posted on the platform since the invasion began.